GovWire

Its really great to have you here for a really important discussion.

This is this governments first Mens Health Summit, and I hope the fact that this is taking place so early, obviously during Movember, appropriately signals the level of ambition we have around mens health and tackling the inequalities and injustices that affect men specifically, in terms of our health, our mental health, our physical health, too.

And its great to have such a wide range of people and organisations represented around the table, because were going to want to work with you.

I met Movember around this time last year in Australia, where it all kicked off and was struck by the level of ambition and expertise and insight that Movember has both in terms of the work here in the UK, but also the extent to which Movember has a global ambition, because so many of the issues that affect men here are affecting men right across the world.

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And I think its really important to meet people on their terms and in their spaces, rather than on governments terms and spaces.

And I think on this health agenda, but on so many others as well, part of what we have to do as a government is work with and through a much wider range of partners and organisations to have the level of impact that we want to have.

And if I think about this governments wider ambitions on health and care and the mission driven approach that the Prime Minister, also an Arsenal fan, famously so, has the level of ambition we have around the health mission.

Yes we cant achieve what we want to achieve in terms of health outcomes and closing health inequalities without the leadership and engagement of government, but government cant do it alone.

It involves a partnership between government, business, civil society, including the organisations represented around this table for this purpose.

In order to make the life-changing and, in some cases, life-saving impact that we want to have.

Were joined today by some Movember role models who are showing us the way in terms of role modelling and an alternative future for young people in our country.

Im looking forward to hearing from you.

Male role models have been particularly important in my life, and Im sure this will be echoed by lots of men around the table.

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I thought I wouldnt be sat at the Cabinet table being able to do the things Im now able to do, without my Dad in my life and the and the impact that hes had as a role model in, you know, some of you may know if youve read anything about my background or even better, read my book, which is available in all good bookshops.

I do not come from a conventional political family or background.

I am one of a still a minority of MPs from a working class background and experience a lot of poverty growing up and actually a family that, particularly on my Mums side of the family, has been afflicted by a lack of male role models and sometimes male abusers as well.

If I think about my Granddad, who was in and out of prison throughout my mums childhood and my childhood, and actually the impact of an abusive father that had on him, and the waste of actually a lot of his potential.

And by contrast, the the different kind of role modelling I had from my dad and my granddad on that side of the family meant that I ended up in Parliament rather than prison.

Although as my late granddad, the armed robber granddad, that is a myth, joked, Ill probably work with more crooks in Parliament than than he did, such as his cynicism about politics.

But it just reinforces the importance of good role male role models and the impact that the life changing impact we can have, not just in terms of health and wellbeing, but life chances and opportunities if people have good male role models in their lives.

I actually think its harder being a young man in todays society than it was when I was growing up.

I think lots of the pressures of social media in particular, and a lot of the issues weve talked about for some time, actually, in terms of young womens health, in terms of their self-esteem, positive body image, and what it means to be a success or failure.

I think there are lots of read across, to young men now in terms of body image and what it means to be a good bloke in todays society.

And I think that combined with lots of other challenges this government is trying to address in terms of life chances, opportunities, good skills, good jobs, a bright future.

I think all of that is piling on young men to the extent that suicide is now the number one killer of men under the age of 35, which I think is a sobering reflection.

Nothing frustrates me more that when mens health and womens health are somehow pitted in opposition to each other, as if by focusing on a mens health strategy we are in any way detracting from the brilliant work that successive governments have been doing on womens health and actually much more work we need to do.

As I was saying to Dame Lesley Regan, who is the governments Womens Health Ambassador yesterday, its this weird thing about politics that we start to talk about issues in a way that no family ever would, as if, you know, caring about sons and brothers or fathers and grandfathers means that we would stop caring about our sisters or our mothers or our daughters.

It is nonsensical.

And this is not an either / or.

This very much has to be an and, and thats why I said in opposition, and Im now carrying through post-general election, that we must and we will address both.

A man dies of prostate cancer every 45 minutes in this country. Which is why Im pleased to welcome Prostate Cancer UK today.

We had a brilliant event in Parliament recently and obviously the remarkable, as a cancer survivor, frankly inspirational, way in which Chris Hoy has spoken about his own diagnosis and the leadership that hes shown in our society, that gives us the chance to think, to make real progress on some of those physical health inequalities that affect mens lives and on mental health generally.

Were investing in cutting mental health waiting times, investing in 8,500 more mental health professionals to cut waiting lists, support in every primary and secondary school in the country and covers in every community.

And Im really delighted to announce today here during Movember that we will be publishing a mens health strategy next year to tackle these problems.

Before you clap too enthusiastically, this is where you come in.

Movember being Movember said to me straight after the general election campaign, I think.

Do you think that health strategy we talked about in opposition, you could be committed to and launched as a complete strategy in Movember this year?

And I was like, whoa, hang on a minute because we want to get this right.

And frankly, we wont get this right without you.

So we are launching the the work to build that strategy now.

But we will need all of your involvement, because Im pretty sure we could have done something together at breakneck speed and had a lovely glossy document to hand to you today.

But thats not really the point, is it?

We dont want the spin, we want the substance, and we want something that we can really follow through and deliver and be proud of for the rest of our lives.

So, were launching our call for evidence.

All of you around the table have experience and insight to share with us, and were looking forward to kicking off that contribution today.

But we will also look forward to working with you and through you to the wide range of organizations and grass root groups and actually a really wide range of men and boys of all ages to make sure that when we do launch the mens health strategy, that this feels like our strategy collectively and that everyone feels their fingerprints on it.

So thank you in advance for all of the hard work youre going to be putting in to work with us on this.

Andrew is our public health minister, and Im delighted to be with you today.

Looking forward to the discussion.

Were going to kick off the discussion and focusing specifically on mens health inequalities.

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